Name/Title
1904/Hughes: Rose Edith as an invalidDescription
Kathleen's childhood was dominated by the long sickness of her mother, Rose, who had been taken seriously ill on one of the family’s holidays in Southwold. Rose had contracted tuberculosis, so perhaps she had suffered a pulmonary haemorrhage at Southwold. Thereafter, she required constant nursing. Two nurses would be employed to take care of her, and Dr Dunbar would be a frequent visitor. The expenses of Rose’s illness would be very large and would entail extreme frugality in Kathleen’s family.
Kathleen writes in “Mum’s Memories” that Rose’s illness lasted over four years. As Rose died in February 1906, the likeliest time for the onset of her illness would have been the summer of 1901 when Kathleen was seven years old.